Jamstix on OSX, the final hack (ARCHIVED)

Dewdman42 · Post by **Dewdman42** » Thu May 03, 2012 12:08 pm

he final hack (ARCHIVED)', '[size=18:6045980189][color=darkred:6045980189]NOTE: JAMSTIX OSX HAS BEEN RELEASED ON 06/24/2014. THE WORK-AROUNDS BELOW ARE NO LONGER NEEDED.[/color:6045980189][/size:6045980189]

Announcing JamstixWine

OSX users, I present for you a fully self contained installation package which makes it easier then ever to install and run Jamstix on a Mac; while we wait for the forthcoming OSX release from Rayzoon. Ralph has been kind enough to host this file here for anyone to try. This release leverages the use of Wine, Reaper and other free technologies to run the existing version of Jamstix3 on your Mac, and connect with your OSX DAW.

This download includes an installer which does everything. You can be up and running in 5 minutes. Please try it out and let us know how it works for you.
[list:6045980189][url]http://www.rayzoontech.com/stuff/JamstixWine_1.2.zip[/url][/list:u:6045980189]
REQUIREMENTS

[*:6045980189]Snow Leopard or later
[*:6045980189]JackOSX must be installed on the machine
[/list6045980189]A readme is contained in the download with complete instructions for installing, as well as a tutorial for integrating Jamstix with your OSX DAW. Here is a quick summary of the steps required to install:

INSTALLATION STEPS
- [*:6045980189]Read the readme
  [*:6045980189]Download and install JackOSX (www.jackosx.com). Requires Reboot
  [*:6045980189]Run the JamstixWine installer
  [*:6045980189]Register Jamstix
  [*:6045980189]Install drumpaks and AI paks
  [*:6045980189]Try it and smile
  [/list6045980189]
  Rayzoon is still working hard to create a real OSX version of Jamstix, this is only a temporary solution until that is finally released. I can say that it works quite well and is now very easy to setup. It also does not require any extra commercial software such as Parallels or Crossover.
  
  It is possible to add other win32 VST's afterwards that you wish to host in Reaper. For example, I use OPX-Pro II in this setup, and it works very well.
  
  Please use this thread if you have any questions about using it, and please let us know your successes too!

vaikl · Post by **vaikl** » Sat May 05, 2012 5:34 am

Hey, thx for this great work! Didn't know that someone still was looking at my very old OSX guide, but yours is far better and easier!

Have installed and checked it against Live 8.3, but Live and JackOSX isn't a perfect marriage (maybe only for me). I have to start JackServer and JamstickWine before Live to let Live see the Jack outs for Wine, but this way Live is coming up as a Rewire slave automatically.

So I leave Jack aside and use IAC for MIDI and JamstickWine as a normal Rewire slave for Live and it's also working great for my soundcard (FireStudio Project) and plugs like SSD4 in Live. The MIDI latency is freaking high but I don't care as long as I can choose to either hear JS' own sounds in Wine w/ Reaper or to get MIDI in Live.

Dewdman42 · Post by **Dewdman42** » Sat May 05, 2012 11:30 am

Well first to be clear, this is not rewire. I called it pseudo rewire because in function its similar maybe, but its not actually using rewire technology at all. Live should not come up as an actual rewire slave to wine at all, its not at all related.

You should not be getting high midi latency, my midi latency here is not audible. Are you sure its midi that is late and not jamstix audio? if you try to play jamstix audio without jackosx, then what you would be hearing is actually the slow windows audio drivers in stead of ASIO, and yes its huge latency. Get JackOSX working if you want to hear Jamstix audio tight.

Even if you're not sending jamstix audio to Live, use JackOSX to send the audio from Reaper to your soundcard, as this will then use the ASIO driver in Reaper and get low latency.

vaikl · Post by **vaikl** » Sat May 05, 2012 4:18 pm

I know that your setup isn't real rewire. My problem is that JackOSX between my Presonus FSP driver, Wine and Live prevents the FireStudio from syncing with Live and Wine when I try to choose the Jack ports as audio channels. Don't know if it's a general Firewire issue or a problem with Live, but each time the FSP driver lose the sample rate sync and Live refuses to stream audio.

I even have to start JackServer to get MIDI out from Wine into Live. The latency is on the MIDI side, Reaper is in MIDI sync but Live is too late (around 100ms).

As I wrote I don't care about having JS sound in Live, I'm happy to trigger SSD, SD or BFD2 in Live with this solution.

Dewdman42 · Post by **Dewdman42** » Sat May 05, 2012 7:33 pm

IAC midi is totally separate from jack I don't see how it would have any impact on the midi unless something in your setup is hogging the cpu. I don't have the problems you're having, so unfortunately I don't know what else to tell you.

It sounds like your soundcard must not fare well with Jack. I would check some of the forums to find out if anyone knows how to make your soundcard play well with jack. Also possibly try a previous version of JackOSX, you never know.

Jack is used widely by a lot of people and normally works very well. Sorry to hear its not so lucky for you.

In any case, the only way you can hear Jamstix play audio with low latency is using jack. Otherwise you're using winsound and the latency sucks. JamstixWine has a special ASIO driver installed that only works with jack. I have no explanation for your reported midi latency, it doesn't make sense to me that jack would have any effect on it. Its possible that something in your setup is causing the cpu to spin out of control or some other resources is jamming up, unfortunately. Very strange.

Sorry you're having problems and sorry I can't be of more help.

Dewdman42 · Post by **Dewdman42** » Sat May 05, 2012 7:50 pm

oh but one thing that just occurred to me, is that Reaper might be confused trying to play when jack is not running, because reaper is setup by me with the WineASIO driver active. Its trying to find jack and if you have jack stopped, then maybe it would confuse reaper. (which is maybe why you don't get the midi unless Jack is started. See what I mean?

If you were to change the reaper audio driver to "WaveOut", then jack would not need to be running for reaper to operate, and I think the midi would be sent normally. However WaveOut has horrible audio latency and probably it will delay the midi to stay in sync with the latent audio.

Reaper has another audio driver type called "Dummy Audio". Go to preferences and try using this audio driver. It seems to disable audio altogether in reaper. I just tried it and it seems to send the midi out fine when using that audio driver. I believe jack will not need to be running in that case and hopefully this might eliminate your 100ms of midi latency

vaikl · Post by **vaikl** » Sat May 05, 2012 9:03 pm

Dewdman42 wrote:oh but one thing that just occurred to me, is that Reaper might be confused trying to play when jack is not running, because reaper is setup by me with the WineASIO driver active. Its trying to find jack and if you have jack stopped, then maybe it would confuse reaper. (which is maybe why you don't get the midi unless Jack is started. See what I mean?

Yep, that's what I was assuming also. But in other words, MIDI *is* being sent via IAC from the Wine machine to Live, just with some delay and not touching Jack.

I forgot to mention (forgot that I'd done this) that I have to activate a MIDI hardware connection on the Jamstix instrument track's I/O settings in Reaper to get MIDI out even when JackServer is running. The activated name is the IAC name that I've configured before in IAC, as described in your tutorial.

Ok, I've changed audio in Reaper to the Dummy device and everything with MIDI is working normal, but now I can't compare MIDI latency because I have no audio output for Reaper 8)

I've done some forum research on Jack with Firewire and syncing, it seems that this isn't the good side of Jack - many syncing probs and the need of installing some additional GNU stuff.

Anyway, this way I don't need Jack (and Parallels) and get what I want. Even my OSX Presonus Faderport is working in Reaper, so that's all I need for now. BFD2 rocks with Jamstix, cool stuff, thx again!

Dewdman42 · Post by **Dewdman42** » Sat May 05, 2012 9:22 pm

also remember that when you're ready to mix your track, you can drag the jamstix parts into reaper track, export the midi file and load it directly in live. Then it will be exactly as its supposed to be.

Dewdman42 · Post by **Dewdman42** » Sat May 05, 2012 10:16 pm

another thing you might try if you haven't already, is use ASIO audio in reaper, and jack too, but don't use jack in live. Just use jack for wine.

Well then you are concern that jamstix audio is not exactly in sync with the midi. So then play with the audio buffer size in jackosx preferences. You might be able to get them with matched latency, if you want to hear jamstix audio at the same time as as BFD.

vaikl · Post by **vaikl** » Sat May 05, 2012 10:52 pm

Dewdman42 wrote:another thing you might try if you haven't already, is use ASIO audio in reaper, and jack too, but don't use jack in live. Just use jack for wine.

That's what I've tried before and will use it again if I want to hear Jamstix' sounds. Audio latency wasn't an issue with Wine/Reaper and Jack only. The FireStudio and it's driver is pretty stable and fast for silmultaneously running more apps on it. As far as I can see it now, the problem with Jack and Live is that Jack(OSX) is yet not perfect in routing or translating a sync signal for sample rates *between* different apps *before* reaching the hardware over CoreAudio onto the Firewire bus.

I could also configure latency compensation in Live for MIDI and audio and would get a near-zero, almost unhearable delay. But that's a manual work I don't need now and best of all - waiting for the native OSX version couldn't get more exciting with this simple and working solution